Stories for Nighttime And Some For The Day by Ben Loory

The stories in Ben Loory's Stories for Nighttime And Some For The Day are reminiscent of bedtime stories.  But, not stories told by loving parents tucking in their child for the night.  Instead, these are stories told by the offbeat uncle, the one who when the kids tell their parents what he has said, are told, "Oh that's just your uncle; he likes to make up adventures."  Then the parents huddle together in another room and make vows that this is the last time ever the uncle will be given the job of bedtime story teller to THEIR kids.

The stories are short, often just a page or two.  The words are also short and the stories seem deceptively simple at first.  Then at the end there is a twist that sets a hook in the reader's mind, insuring that they will return to the story again and again trying to figure out exactly where they were fooled.

This book is recommended for readers who enjoy short stories.  The stories are reminiscent of O'Henry in the twist at the end, but are not as complex as his.  These are simple tales, simple enough that they can easily creep into the mind and take up residence. 

Tout Sweet by Karen Wheeler

Karen Wheeler had it all.  She was a fashion writer and spent her days at glamorous design parties, the top restaurants and in association with the top names in fashion.  She had more handbags and shoes than most small villages could muster with all the households combined.  She spent her days in a whirl of shopping, parties, and the best that the fashion world could offer.

But something was missing.  She was tiring of the hustle and bustle and the emptiness of a life without someone to share it with.  The man of her dreams had abruptly left, and she couldn't seem to move on.  Karen started to take classes to fill her weekends and at one, met a man who was creating a French bed and breakfast place.  He invited her to France to see what he was doing, and she accepted.  While there, in idle conversation, the fact that a house in the village was available came up and before she knew it, she had viewed it and bought it in one day!

Tout Sweet is the story of the first year of Karen's life in her new surroundings, and the change from a luxury flat in London to a house in rural France that had been neglected.  When she moved in, there was no running water, no modern bathroom, no kitchen facilities or even a kitchen floor!  The reader goes through the renovation with Karen, lovingly creating a house that was warm and inviting.

It is also the story of how she learned to slow her life and love it in the present instead of always waiting for the future.  Most of the village inhabitants were older, retirees from England along with the native French.  Karen made good friends here, friends that she had time to involve in her life.  She learned to enjoy the simple pleasures of long country walks, fresh baked croissants in the morning, and sitting in her courtyard at the end of a long day enjoying a glass of wine.  Along the way, there were several men who were interested in her and the reader gets the story of how each of these relationships progressed.

This book is recommended for those who enjoy travel writing and those who enjoy reading about how it is possible to change one's life.  Wheeler's writing style is light and breezy and the reader closes the last page sure that their life would be enriched if they could count her among their friends.  An enjoyable read, Tout Sweet is a life lesson on how to transform a life that doesn't satisfy into one that makes each day a new adventure.

That Day In September by Artie Van Why

Artie Van Why came to New York City to pursue an acting career.  A decade later, he instead was working at a career as a word processor at a New York City law firm, which happened to be located in the World Trade Center. 

Artie was there on September 11th, 2001 when the planes hit and America woke up to a new reality.  His memoir takes the reader through the terror and pain of that day as he saw the people jump, helped those he could and finally staggered home.  Van Why takes the reader through the following weeks and months of confusion and pain, the reality of how many were lost, and the guilt of wondering why some survived and some did not.

This book is recommended for all readers who still need to process their feelings about September 11th.  This birds eye view of what occurred that day and how it changed us all forever helps to provide a perspective from which the reader can hopefully start to make sense of such a horrendous act.

Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson

Ten Thousand Saints revolves around the life of Jude, a sixteen year old coming of age in the late 1980's. Jude was adopted at birth by parents who proudly called themselves hippies. Now, as he tries to determine who he is, they have split; his mother a glassblower in Vermont and his father a drug dealer in New York City. Jude doesn't do well at school; he doesn't have many friends, and he's not sure why his life isn't working out. His one true friend is Teddy, who is also from a broken home.

On New Year's Eve of 1987, several events happen. Jude's father's girlfriend's daughter, Eliza, comes to town for a few hours to meet Jude and his sister, a suggestion by Les, the father. Jude and Teddy take Eliza to a party where Teddy and Eliza end up together and Jude ends up being beat up by the local football hero and the local drug dealer. Finally, as the year ends, Jude and Teddy get high and Teddy dies.

As the battle between Jude and the local toughs intensifies, his parents decide that he should move to New York for a while to live with Les. Once there, Jude meets up with Johnny, Teddy's big brother who moved to the city several years ago. Johnny introduces Jude to Straight Edge, a militant group that worships music and bans drugs, alcohol, sex and eating meat. Jude falls in with this group, joining Johnny's band and then eventually starting one of his own.

The book follows Jude's life for a year as he moves from group to group, cleaving to friends then breaking apart, always searching for what will make sense of his life. The adults in his world don't seem to have made any more sense of their lives than he has, and Jude must determine what will work for him to move forward.

This book is recommended for all readers interested in determining life paths. For many, it will be nostalgic of the time period, while others may read and wonder how all of this occurred. The book covers other topics; unplanned pregnancies, the birth of gay liberation and the AIDS epidemic, the band scene, the gentrification of New York City and the sense that life happens whether or not one is ready for it. This is a debut novel by Eleanor Henderson and readers will be waiting eagerly for her next book, ready to see what new topics she will tackle.

Just After Sunset by Stephen King

The thirteen stories in Stephen King’s Just After Sunset confirm him as the master of the thriller and horror genres for this generation. These are not necessarily short stories; King likes enough room to maneuver around as he unveils his story. The reader is reminded once again what makes Stephen King a master; taking everyday situations and characters each of us encounter in our own lives and twisting them just enough awry to make the horror that ensues believable.

The stories range across a variety of situations. There is the man who takes up stationary bike riding to lose weight; nothing can go wrong there, can it? The psychiatrist who “catches” his patient’s sick obsessions. A high school graduation party that will be remembered not for the occasion but for what went wrong that day with the world. A man haunted by survivor’s guilt when he uncharacteristically skipped work and the date happened to be September 11th and his workplace an office in the Twin Towers. From these situations, King weaves stories that will remain in the reader’s mind long after the book is closed.

This book is recommended for horror and thriller lovers. King’s genius is his believability; the conversations his characters have are conversations you could overhear in any diner  or gathering place in America. The situations start out as everyday occurrences until there is a kink in time, something that twists the everyday sideways into horror; a glimpse into another world that seems impossible to exist; a glance into the hidden horrors in a friend or neighbor’s mind. King has stated that he writes his short stories about situations that scare him; if so, his mind must be a very frightening place.  Readers will be pleasurably entertained and ready for the next round of King’s stories when they finish this one.

Running From Secrets by Stephanie Void

Bethany is confused.  Her family has just moved to town, fleeing a family tragedy.  She has no friends and roams the forest beside their house, searching for something, anything, to make her life feel right again.  Bethany starts to write a journal, all about another land call New Velerthland.  She spends hours constructing the land and its inhabitants.

Imagine her surprise when she is drawn through time and space to this land.  She wakes up in New Velerthland, knowing that there is evil loose in the land and that only she can save it.  Queen Numuriu has been possessed by demon spirits and has turned against the land and especially her childhood friend and cousin, Chime.  Bethany joins forces with Chime to try to defeat the evil before it can bring down the land and everything in it.
They must defeat evil wizards, sirens and ancient spells to break the hold that magic has on New Velerthland and its inhabitants.

Stephanie Void has written an interesting YA fantasy novel with supernatural elements, love stories and the conflict between evil and right.  The book is told in first person, and moves between Bethany's new home and the home she has created in New Velerthland.  Young adult readers will be interested to read to the end to discover what happens to Chime, Bethany and Queen Numuria, and will be ready to read more about the land in later books.

Passeggiata by G. G. Husak

“Passeggiata” in Italian means a kind of walk, a stroll arm-in-arm. That is exactly what G. G. Husak does for the reader; takes them on a stroll through various parts of Italy. She and her husband have made an annual tradition of visiting Italy, and in this book, she takes the reader with them on various adventures. The reader learns the tips that make Italian travel more pleasurable, as well as various pitfalls that can mar a journey. Small items such as which side of the road a bus stops on can make a huge difference if you are on the wrong side and it is the last or only bus of the day.

The Husaks visited all the major cities; Rome, Naples, Venice, Milan and Florence. They also traveled to the smaller cities that many travelers have not heard of and the less traveled places such as the walled cities built on top of hills and the Italian Rivera. Along the way, Husak points out the differences in the food, the art and the local customs.

One of the main points of the book is the couple’s realization that it is imperative to put aside the rushed scheduled life they lead in the United States and adopt a more leisurely way of handling the day and the stops along the way. If a bus doesn’t come on time, it will come a bit later. Hotels may be smaller than American ones, but have their own charms. Tourists can eat cheaply and well by avoiding the more heavily patronized restaurants and looking for smaller, family-oriented ones.

This book is recommended for those readers who either plan to visit Italy, or just love to read about other cultures and ways of life. There are numerous tips that the traveler can take advantage of, and the armchair traveler can revel in the stories of art, food and the Italian way of life.

One Flight Up by Susan Fales-Hill

One Flight Up follows four friends as they hit their late thirties and start to question their choices in love.  India is a divorce lawyer who is very successful in her career but has never married.  Her heart was broken when she caught her fiance cheating on her weeks before the wedding.  She has finally started a new relationship with a safe, caring man when her dynamic ex-fiance comes back into the picture, determined to win her back.  Will she choose stability or excitement?

Abby married young and has three children.  She gave up her dreams of being a professor to work in and then run the family art gallery so that her husband can continue his dreams of being a sculptor.  None of her friends like him, regarding him as controlling, but Abby knows nothing else.  She expects her marriage will bump along forever until she picks up a phone message for him that tells her he is cheating.  Now a young teacher is interested in her.  What will she do?

Monique has it all.  A successful ob-gyn, she is married to a very rich and successful businessman.  They live in a mansion and have two gorgeous children.  The only problem?  Her husband ignores her and hasn't slept with her in months.  Will the new guy at work solve her longings?

Esme is a fireball, who explodes into every social situation, taking what she wants with no apologies.  Raised in a wealthy family and the kind of good looks that have men drooling, she has it all, but she's totally bored with her life as a suburban housewife.  She's ready to have some flings just for fun, sure that her husband will never know or leave her.  Is she right?

Susan Fales-Hill has created an interesting mix of characters and situations.  She lays out the constant battle women face between career and love, between safety and excitement, and how different women solve the dilemma.  The reader is swept along in the story, anxiously waiting to see how each women ends up.  This book is recommended for women readers.

Bringing Adam Home by Les Standiford

The kidnapping and murder of seven-year-old Adam Walsh was one of the most notorious crimes of the last fifty years.  Adam had gone shopping at Sears with his mother, Reve, and was fifty feet from her in the store.  She was looking at lamps; he was looking at and playing with the video game display with other boys.  When they got rowdy, the Sears security guard, a seventeen year old girl, sent all the boys outside.  All went home with their parents, but Adam, disappeared that day.  His head was discovered floating in a canal two weeks later; his body never found.

Bringing Adam Home details the investigation of his murder for the long twenty-seven years that the murder went unsolved.  Although there was a viable suspect who confessed early and often, the overwhelmed police force of Hollywood, Florida, refused to believe him guilty.  The man was in jail for other murders and the police in charge felt that he was making up his confessions.  Over the years, the police left leads uninvestigated, forced facts into wrong theories, and even actively blocked other investigators from helping solve the murder. 

The parents, John and Reve Walsh, went on to dedicate their lives to fighting the crime of missing children.  John Walsh became the public face of one of TV's blockbuster shows; America's Most Wanted.  The show highlighted unsolved cases and asked the public's help in finding suspects.  It was considered one of the first reality shows.  In addition, the Walshs went to Congress several times as proponents for various laws to protect missing children.  From this emerged the national crime database for missing children.  The case also changed parental views of the world.  Many readers remember childhoods where it wasn't unusual for kids to leave the house in the morning and come home again at supper.  It is almost unimaginable today to consider leaving a child unsupervised in that way.  Parents shuddered at the Adam Walsh case and kept their children a bit closer from that point on.

The book is well-researched, and readers are taken inside a complex kidnapping-murder investigation.  One of the main contributors of the book was Detective Joe Matthews, the detective who in his retirement solved the case once and for all by going back through the case files and creating such a strong case that there could be no doubt who the killer was.   Matthews was the main investigator on America's Most Wanted after his retirement, and a personal friend of the family.  Solving Adam's case was his personal goal and obsession, his gift to the grieving family.  This book is recommended for readers of true crime, and for all parents.  Evil is out there and it will in a moment take your family and tear it apart.

Rules Of Civility by Amor Towles

The year is 1938 and three young people are thrown together on New Year's Eve in a jazz bar.  Eve Ross and Katy Kontent are young women who have come to Manhattan to make their way in the world.  Eve is from a rich family in Indiana while Katy is the daughter of Russian immigrants and grew up in Brighton Beach.  They met in a boardinghouse and soon become fast friends, recognizing a fellow feeling of joy and determination to take life on their own terms.

Tinker Gray is the man the girls meet.  Obviously from wealth, his every move betrays perfect manners and a sense of belonging wherever he is.  They become a trio and the book follows them throughout the year, as they form alliances, come together and move apart, and go through the changes common to the young as they make their way and choose their life paths.

Eve and Tinker are together for a while, leaving Katy behind, then the pieces are shaken up and new alliances form.  Along the way, the reader meets other people; the rich widow who takes what she wants with no regard for the opinions of others; the ultra-rich who assume the world is theirs for the taking and are distinguished by their manners; the hard-driving boss determined to make a go even if it kills his workers, the artists who portray the lives around them; the working class individuals striving to improve their lot.

Amor Towles has written a fascinating look at the moneyed class in the era coming out of the Depression and between the two great wars.  His characters are finely drawn, especially Katy, who is the mirror through which the reader experiences this world.  This book is recommended for lovers of historical fiction, and those interested in a great story that transports the reader to another place and time. 

Releasing Gillian's Wolves by Tara Woolpy

Nearing fifty, Gillian Sachs feels that she doesn't know what she wants.  She has been trapped in a loveless marriage for years due to her husband's multiple affairs.  She hasn't left him, though, since he is a Senator and the breakup would be front-page news and she doesn't know any other life.  She paints but has never exhibited since she wasn't sure if it would be her talent getting a show or the novelty of a political wife being an artist.

In the middle of Jack's latest reelection run, it becomes more than Gillian can bear as she watches him start an affair with a campaign intern younger than their own daughter.  Gillian agrees to stay until after the election, but moves out to a cabin on their property.  Most of the money in the marriage is hers, so that isn't an issue. 

After the election, Gillian slowly starts to rebuild her life.  She reunites with her daughter, their estrangement a casualty of her daughter's refusal to have anything to do with her father.  Gillian goes to Amsterdam to visit friends, and while there starts painting again.  She also meets Luke, a well-known sculptor who starts to make her feel alive again.

As she starts to heal, everything back home falls apart.  Jack is involved in scandal and this time the FBI are also involved.  Gillian is called back home by the various law enforcement agencies doing the investigation.  Will she find the strength to break away or will Gillian be pulled back into Jack's sordid world?

Tara Woolpy has created a strong, sympathetic character in Gillian.  She embodies the longing many have as they reach their middle years to find what really matters in life to them, and to take whatever chances are needed to live their lives happily.  This book is recommended to readers who are also searching for that magical something that makes lives interesting and vital.

With Just One Click by Amanda Strong

Amanda Strong explores what happens when three women decide to join the online world of Facebook.  Chloe is a career woman, successful at her reviewer job but not at relationships.  After she joins Facebook, an old love looks her up and sends her a Friend invitation.  Will stirring up old ashes reignite a new love?

Morgan is a stay-at-home wife who uses Facebook as a social outlet, finding validation of her life choices and advice from her friends on her life as a busy young mother.  One fly emerges in the Facebook ointment; her relationship with her husband becomes strained as she gets jealous over the women who chat with him; especially a former girlfriend from high school.

Brynn has it all; two teenage children and a successful husband; a big house and no money worries.  But she is feeling left out and lonely and strikes up a friendship on Facebook that has to potential to tear her family apart.

Amanda Strong has cleverly used the microscope of this increasingly familiar social networking site to examine the way women support each other, find love and dissension, and filter their lives through the way others view them.  She examines the positive and negative sides of the site, leaving the reader with the realization that Facebook just shines a light into whatever is going on in people's lives; it can neither make nor break their relationships.  This book is recommended for romance readers and for those interested in the effect of technology on modern lives.

Arcadia Snips And The Steamworks Consortium by Robert Rodgers

Mad math and science are afoot in the 19th century in the city of Aberwick.  There are tales of mad scientists who caused the fire that never ends and flying machines and machines that can not only do calculations but talk machine to machine without human intervention.  All these inventions are centered around the Steamworks Consortium, and the populace is unsure if the Consortium is a force for good or evil.

The most maligned name in the annals of mad scientists/mathematicians are the Daffodil family.  The grandparents were mad, and the grandmother lives in an asylum still.  Their son and his wife were credited/blamed with losing an hour of time with all the tragedies that entailed.  The current generation, William Daffodil, works at the Steamworks and tries to remain under the radar and live down his family's reputation.

But something is afoot.  There are stirrings of a plot, a plot that will be worse than anything that has gone before.  The forces of evil are arrayed against the forces of good.  These include Daffodil, an intrepid feminist named Miss Primrose, a madman who runs a detective agency and Arcadia Snips.  Born into a mad scientist family, Arcadia ran away at an early age to make her way on the streets.  She is a vagabond, a thief, and perhaps the savior of all mankind.

Robert Rodgers has created a rollicking steampunk tale of high adventure.  Steampunk is defined in Wikipedia as "a sub-genre of science fiction, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually the Victorian era Britain—that incorporates elements of either science fiction or fantasy. Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology or futuristic innovations as Victorians may have envisioned them; based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, art, etc. This technology may include such fictional machines as those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne."

Those readers who have wondered what steampunk literature is all about will be interested to explore it in such an accessible work.  Fans of high adventure will be delighted with all the action, while those interested in finding new and admirable characters will fall in love with Arcadia Snips, an unlikely heroine who is unforgettable.

Summer Of The Bear by Bella Pollen

Nicky and Letty have it all.  Young, in love with a great marriage and three beautiful children, they are posted in Bonn with Nicky's diplomatic career and rumored to be in the running for the Ambassador's job in Rome.  Then tragedy strikes.  Nicky falls from a roof on the Embassy and is killed.  Letty, her world destroyed, takes the children back to the island in the Outer Hebrides where they spend every summer to try to put their world back together and figure out how to go on without Nicky.

Nothing seems to be working.  Georgie, the oldest girl, tries to fill in mothering her younger siblings as Letty is barely coping.  But Georgie is ready for University and starting to discover men.  Alba, the middle child, has developed a cruel streak that she takes out on everyone, especially her little brother, Jamie.  Jamie, the only boy and eight years old, is more lost than the others.  No one has told him his father is dead; just that he is "lost".  Jamie obsesses about finding him and about a circus bear that has escaped and is loose somewhere on the island.  He is an unsophisticated, innocent child who just wants to make everything right again.

Bella Pollen has created a magical book about families coming together and building their lives on the treasure they have in each other.  The book is told through alternating views of each character, allowing the reader to slowly piece together the puzzle of what happened in Bonn and how to move on in their lives.  The people and culture of the little-known Outer Hebrides Islands is lovingly portrayed.  This book is recommended for all readers.

The Savage City by T.J. English

The Savage City is the exploration by T.J. English of the forces driving the dynamics of New York City in the sixties and early seventies.  This was the time of hippies, peace and love, protests against Vietnam.  It was the peak of the Civil Rights movement with Martin Luther King, Jr. as the Afro-American spokesman.  There was also an underside; racial discrimination, the rise of the black liberation groups such as the Black Panthers and the Black Liberation Army to combat racisim, and the police that often were more interested in the graft they got than any kind of even-handed dispirsement of justice.

On the day Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I have a dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., two white girls were murdered in their apartment. Emily Hoffert and Janice Wylie were exemplars of rich young women working on careers and their deaths were shouted from the front pages of newspapers for weeks on end. 

English uses this case as the filter through which he follows the lives of three men:

1.  George Whitmore was a young, unsophisticated black man who had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  He was swept up by the police in another borough and before he managed to win his freedom ten years later, had been charged with the Wylie-Hoffert murders and those of two other women.  His treatment by the police was one of the key cases that led to the establishment of the Miranda warning.

2.  Bill Phillips was a New York City policeman and part of the "blue wall".  He spent as much time finding ways to make money on his beat as he did solving crimes and was part of the corruption in the police force that became evident. 

3.  Dhoruba Bin Wahad, a black man hardened by his time in prison, was an influential member of the NYC Black Panther party.  His views on the white police and power structure led him to a series of crimes that controlled his life.

T.J. English has done a masterful job of research these divergent lives and bringing them together into a cohesive whole to explain the environment of these times and the factors that influenced everyday life.  This book is recommended to those interested in reading how social mores influence our lives, as well as those who lived through these turbulent times.

The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova

The newspapers are full of a shocking story.  The artist, Robert Oliver, one of art's modern up-and-rising figures, is arrested in a museum where he has attacked a painting; the painting that is the image of Leda and the swan.  He gives no explanation, in fact, he refuses to talk at all.

Andrew Marlow is the psychiatrist in charge of the mental hospital where Oliver is confined.  He takes Oliver's case himself as Marlowe is also a painter and thinks it may help unravel the mystery surrounding Oliver.  For Oliver is mute, and refuses to talk to anyone.  As the weeks go by, Dr. Marlow becomes more and more intrigued by Oliver.  Desperate to understand Oliver, he begins to research his life.

Marlow takes a trip to the mountains of North Carolina where he spends time with Oliver's ex-wife.  She tells of their lives together, first in New York and then later at the college in NC where Oliver is put on staff.  The ex-wife talks about the early signs of Oliver's mental illness, but also about her growing suspicion that there is another woman.

Marlow also finds this woman and learns more of Oliver's life.  Oliver paints one woman over and over and Marlow finds clues about her and the importance to Oliver's life, but there is no definite knowledge to be found.  He makes trips to Mexico and later to France where he finally discovers the secret to unlock the bars of the mental prison Olivier is caught in.

Elizabeth Kostova has written a complex, intriguing tale.  The plot unfolds slowly and the reader learns about the characters a bit at a time, like a stripteaser slowly revealing her charms.  Along with the plot, the reader is exposed to the art world and how painters relate to the world around them.  This book is recommended for readers of modern literature and those interested in love stories that change lives.

Bad Boy by Peter Robinson

Fans of Peter Robinson's series featuring Inspector Alan Banks will be interested to know he has written another.

Banks has gone on a vacation to the United States.  In his absence, horrors take place.  Bank's daughter, Tracy, gets involved with a local charmer.  Jaff is the son of the local bookie and a gorgeous Bollywood Indian actress.  He dabbles at the fringes of mob activity; a little money laundering, a little drug dealing.  He is charming and good-looking and the boyfriend of Tracy's best friend, Erin.  When Erin gets into police trouble by taking Jaff's gun, Tracy goes to warn him and ends up going off with him.

What seems like a lark at first and a chance to get to know Jaff better turns into a nightmare as she does just that, gets to know him better.  For Jaff is a true bad boy; narcissistic, ready to harm anyone who gets between him and anything he desires.  Tracy goes from a willing participant to a hostage as the situation gets more and more serious.  Inspector Banks returns home to find a crisis with his daughter in danger.  Can he resolve things and save her life?

Peter Robinson and his Inspector Banks series are well-known and respected.  He has been a finalist for the Los Angles Times Book Prize, a "Best Book of the Year" recipient by Publisher's Weekly, a "Notable Book" winner by the New York Times and a "Page Turner Of The Week" winner by People magazine.  Robinson has won numerous prizes including the Edgar Award, the Anthony Award and the Grand Prix de litterature Policiere.  This book, although the latest in a series, stands alone, as it was the first of Robinson's books that I'd read.  This book is recommended for mystery lovers who enjoy police procedurals and an inside look at how police forces really work.

Birdie's Book by Jan Bozarth

Birdie is excited and scared.  She is off to visit her grandmother, who she doesn't remember at all.  Her mother and grandmother have been estranged for years.  Birdie doesn't know why as her mother refuses to discuss it.  But her father thinks Birdie should know her family so he has sent her to visit while her mom is traveling on business.

Birdie has one overriding interest, plants.  She knows them all, their characteristics, how to grow them, their Latin names.  Imagine her joy when she discovers her grandmother lives on a large piece of land with hundreds of varieties of plants, and a greenhouse.  She makes her living selling various plants.  Her land has large gardens, with mazes and some of the largest trees Birdie has ever seen.  While exploring, she discovers the tree that is the heart of the land, but also discovers that it is dying.

This discovery leads her grandmother to tell her of her family history.  They are the guardians of the plants, but the plants are slowly dying.  The trouble started when the Singing Stone was broken in half.  That night, Birdie has a dream that takes her to another land, Aventurine.

She is confused about why she is there, but meets friends along the way.  There is Kerka, another girl who is there to help Birdie in her mission.  The girls meet river maidens (known as mermaids elsewhere) and fairies.  Each reveals another piece of Birdie's mission and how she can achieve it.  She must heal the land, and to do so, she must heal the Singing Stone and the heartland tree.  Can Birdie heal the land, and her family at the same time?

This is the first book in Jan Bozarth's Fairy Grandmother Academy series.  Elementary and middle-school girls will be entranced with this story.  There is a related website with games, places to write dreams, meet friends, etc.  At this point, four books have been written in the series.  This book is recommended for young readers, and for parents and grandparents looking for books to buy for their daughters or granddaughters that are exciting and provide a good message about what we are sent to do in the world.

Phone Kitten by Marika Christian

Emily Winters has a problem.  Well, several problems, but they really aren't her fault and anyhow, she can explain it all.  Emily has always hid her light under a basket, it's safer to be ignored.  But after being fired from her newspaper job unfairly, she starts to take control of her life.  She's losing weight, working out, going back to school and has even met the man of her dreams.  Is it fair that things don't work out for like she planned?

Since she lost her job, she had to have money, right?  Being a phone sex talker isn't a job you write home to mother about, but it's money and you never have to see your clients.  It couldn't possibly be her fault if one of her customers gets himself killed and she just happened to be in the restaurant he was dining at his last night, could it?  What can a girl do?  Why, obviously, she should take up detecting and solve the murder herself!

Marika Christian has written a light, frothy detective story with an engaging heroine, a believable cast of characters, and laugh out loud situations.  Emily is a can-do kind of gal, never at a loss for an idea of what to do next and brave enough (or naive enough) to follow through on her plans.  Readers will laugh out loud and immediately look for  more of Marika Christian's work when the last page is read.  This book is recommended for mystery and chick-lit readers. 

The Believers by Zoe Heller

Joel and Audrey Livinoff have been lions in the radical and socialist circles of New York, always at the forefront of every political demonstration, determined to champion the rights of the downtrodden. Now Joel has been stricken; the victim of a stroke suffered in court. He survives, but is left in a vegetative state for months.

Zoe Heller’s The Believers follows the Livinoff family during this time of turmoil. Audrey has been married to Joel for forty years. She is still fiercely committed to the principles they have spent their lives defending, passionate about ideas but much less so about her family. Like many caught up in the fight for mankind, she doesn’t actually like individuals very much at all, finding everyone deficient and not committed enough. She castigates those around her for failing to live up to her ideals.

The three Livinoff children are working through their own struggles as adults. Rosa, the child most like her parents, has returned from four years in Cuba where she lived in a dirt hut, strangely disoriented and unsure what she believes in. Surprisingly, this daughter of fiercely atheistic parents is drawn to discover what Judaism is about, to find out if it’s tenets are what she can believe and commit to.

Karla is a social worker, married to Mike and constantly sure that she doesn’t measure up as a woman, a child to her parents, a sufficient wife to her husband. Unable to have children, she and Mike are trying to adopt. Along with this struggle, Karla struggles to make peace between the fiercely fighting members of her own family.

Lenny, the Livinoff’s adopted son, is a recuperating drug addict, who has never made his way in the adult world, and who seems always on the verge of another relapse. Strangely, the independent Audrey is most closely attached to Lenny, and refuses to hear anything negative about him or about her enabling of his dependence.

Then there is the scandal that emerges during Joel’s long hospitalization. The secret makes each of the Livinoff question what their family stood for, and what the truth of their relationships are. Audrey is unsure if her marriage has been nothing but a farce, while the children wonder if their parents are responsible for their adult difficulties.

Zoe Heller has written an incisive book that examines the morass of family relationships and how tangled they are and what effect they have on the participants’ life choices. Readers will examine their own lives in the shadow of the truths that are become evident as the Livinoff family and its conflicts are laid bare. This book is recommended for readers interested in family dramas and how these first relationships have lasting effects on adult lives.